


Something Still Standing

by Midnight Musume (Peas)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Ladybug, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 23:37:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21466399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peas/pseuds/Midnight%20Musume
Summary: Chat Noir checks in with Marinette after the events of the 'Ladybug' episode
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Kudos: 73





	Something Still Standing

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this after watching the ep because I had a lot of feels I guess? Nothing really happens. 
> 
> I posted this on tumblr first, so it's been chillin there and I figured it was time to move it over here.
> 
> The St. Jacques Tower was a part of a church that was otherwise destroyed, so it's just the remaining bit. It just kinda hangs out by itself in a park now after some restoration. I think it's lovely. You can look at it on google or wikipedia if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jacques_Tower

“Chat Noir?” Marinette blinked up at him. Was there an akuma happening nearby? She was sitting on a blue bench in one of the parks close to home, looking up at the Tower of Saint-Jacques and sketching. You can go to the top of the tower and apparently it’s a great view of the city on a good day, but she’d never gone on one of the tours. She could probably take a look sometime as Ladybug. Chat Noir had certainly come down from the top himself.

“_ Salut, _ Marinette. After yesterday I wanted to make sure you’ll be alright. I don’t think Lila will target you anymore, but…” his sentence trails off in an unsure, helpless sort of way. Marinette can see the genuine concern in his stance and in the line of his mouth.

“The truth always comes out eventually. My friends are always there for me, too,” she gives him a light nod, “I’ll be fine.” 

It was a relief to be allowed back to school, and no one had said anything other than that they were glad to have her back. It was nice of Chat Noir to be worried for her as Marinette like this. How did he even know that anything had happened to her?

“That’s good. I’ll always be on your side, too. I don’t want to see you hurt,” he says, sitting dramatically down next to her. Marinette smiles, he was such a flirty show-off.

“The world isn’t always fair, we just have to do our best and focus on the things that are really important,” she doesn’t know where this is coming from, or why she feels like she needs to say it to Chat Noir. He frowns at her.

“But it’s not right.”

“It’s not,” Marinette agrees with a grin, “But I’m used to it and I’m okay. I’m proud and confident and I won’t let some bully get the best of me.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard you say that about yourself before,” Chat’s face is lit up like the sun.

“To go around saying that to people would be conceited!” she defends quickly and he laughs.

“I guess so! I’m glad that you have confidence in yourself, though. I didn’t…”

“You thought I was a coward?” she accuses quickly. 

“No!” Chat Noir shakes his head vehemently, and then sighs with resignation, “I can’t figure you out, Marinette.”

“I _ can _ be pretty weird sometimes,” Marinette confesses. She watches the way Chat’s smile changes as he thinks about it. He shouldn’t know her _ that _well, but something about his expression is warm and it makes her chest feel simultaneously heavy and weightless. Chat was a goofball, too. He had no right to judge her. His green eyes finally turn on her and he looks like he’s going to say something but he catches sight of her sketchbook instead.

“Wow, Marinette. That’s incredible,” his head whips from her drawing to the tower and back again with an amplified excitement, “I thought you only drew clothes!”

“It’s nice sometimes just to draw from life. I don’t have to think too hard. I’m just trying to clear my head, really.”

“You said you were fine,” his demeanor snaps into something like betrayal.

“Part of being fine is having healthy outlets. What would you have done if you came over here and asked me how I was and I wasn’t fine?” Marinette smirks.

“I would have done everything until you smiled again,” he replies seriously. Marinette’s breath catches and she isn’t sure why. Chat Noir gently takes her sketchbook and she doesn’t protest.

“You are really talented, Marinette,” he says after a few pages. She doesn’t feel self-conscious about him going through her drawings like this. There wasn’t anything in there she had to hide from Chat Noir, and she was actually pretty proud of some of the work. It was nice to show off like this in a way where she wasn’t pushing herself on someone. Chat Noir was choosing it on his own.

“Thank you, Chat. It means a lot to me that you like my drawings so much… and that you were worried about me.”

“I don’t want anyone to hurt you,” he only glances up. He said it like it was the most natural thing on the planet to say. It definitely wasn’t. 

“Why me?”

“You’re my friend, and you’re incredible. It would be an injustice and I’m a superhero so I can’t let that slide,” Chat Noir winks. Marinette giggles at him.

“I’m glad to be friends with a superhero, then.”

“I want to help. If there’s anything you need,” Chat Noir gives her back the sketchbook. 

“Me too,” Marinette tells him.

“What?” he laughs.

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to help you, but you can count on me if you need anything,” she swears, punching at the air like she was defeating Chat Noir’s imaginary enemies for him.

“Marinette… thanks,” he hums with happiness.

“That’s what friends are for, right?”


End file.
